Howelsen became "father of Colorado skiing"

Barnum & Bailey poster This full color giclee poster is available for sale in the Tread of Pioneers Museum store (locacted at 8th & Oak Streets in Steamboat Springs, 970-879-2214) in three sizes. You can also email cbannister@treadofpioneers.org to order. Your purchase supports the Tread of Pioneers Museum.

It all started in Steamboat Springs, says the lore

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

My dad grew up in the corner of Rio Blanco County on the ranch my grandfather homesteaded, and he always claimed that Colorado skiing originated not far away. There was always some truth to my dad's stories, and he would point out where the ski jump was located near Steamboat, when we rolled through town. Oddly enough, Dad was not a bad skier on the ancient equipment — snap-cable bindings, heavy leather ski boots that laced front and back, and long edgeless, wooden skis paired with bamboo poles he sported during my childhood — but no match for local hero and the "Father  of Colorado Skiing," Karl Frithjof Hovelsen, or Carl Howelsen as he became known here in the U.S.

"Carl Howelsen caught the attention of Barnum & Bailey directors in the summer of 1906 while soaring 60 feet into a pool of water from a 90-meter tower at a Chicago amusement park. In November 1906 he joined the circus, which billed him as "Captain" and the "Flying Norseman." Howelsen was paid $200 a week to "ski sail" down a Vaseline greased 100 foot slide, which was set at a 45 degree angle, and land on a platform 75 feet away and into the arms of two strong men waiting to check his flight. Sometimes he jumped over two elephants placed between the slide and platform," says information from Tread of the Pioneers Museum in Steamboat Springs.

"Carl Howelsen founded the first Winter Sports Club team, was responsible for introducing Winter Carnival to Steamboat Springs, built our first ski jump, set jumping records, and was instrumental in introducing ski jumping and recreational skiing to Colorado. He is in both the National and Colorado Ski Hall of Fame and resided in Steamboat Springs from 1913 to 1921."

According to U.S. National Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame, "Carl Howelsen was born in Christiania, Norway on March 23, 1877,  immigrating to the United States in June, 1905. A winner of major championships in his native Norway, he played a large role in the development of Steamboat Springs for competitive and recreational skiing."

Carl Howelsen immigrated to the United States when he was 28, loaded with honors because of his virtuosity as a skier.

"Beginning in 1895, he scored among the top jumping and cross-country competitors participating in Holmenkollen tourneys. Always seeking the coveted nordic-combined championship, Howelsen won the grueling 50-kilometer race twice in a row, his final triumph in 1903 which carried him to combined championships of what is considered the greatest Nordic tourney of the world. His trophies included the Crown Prince Silver Cup, the King’s Silver Cup and the Holmenkollen Gold Medal."

While he was with Ringling Brothers’ Circus, he also helped organize the Norge Ski Club in Chicago. "However, circus life and improvised wood and canvas slides had no appeal for a man who longed for deep snow country but could not locate suitable terrain in Midwestern America. Around 1910, Howelsen reached Colorado and set out (on skis) to explore the Rocky Mountains. One trek took him to Hot Sulfur Springs where he stopped long enough to help stage what may have been the first ski tourney in Colorado. This was two miles north of Steamboat Springs and near the slopes that he believed should prove excellent for skiing," says information from the Hall of Fame.

"Tales concerning “that wild Swede” began circulating soon after snow arrived. It was reported that Howelsen had built a platform on a hillside, packed down the snow above and below it and with slats attached to his feet was hurtling through the air 60 to 70 feet. Thus ski jumping came to Steamboat, which later that winter, organized its first snow sports carnival under the expert supervision of the newly-arrived Norwegian. This beginning was followed in1915 with another jump on the much larger and steeper hill south of town that now bears the name Howelsen Hill."

Steamboat Springs, Colorado was dubbed “Ski Town, U.S.A,” in part, because of Howelsen's efforts.

"What began more than half a century ago as little more than a steep snow-covered slope saw ski sport spread from a jumping trajectory to encompass adjacent downhill trails into a competitive-recreational complex of great significance to American ski sport. Steamboaters conclude that it would never have been possible but for Howelsen who climaxed his Colorado sojourn in 1921 by winning the Class “A” Jumping Championship of the National Ski Association of America."

"Carl Howelsen never again tracked Colorado snow after winning the national championship in 1921 which may have been his greatest regret. A desire to visit his parents took him back to Oslo. Although his intent was to return to Steamboat, he married and settled in his native country. Nevertheless, the Nowegian-American continued ski jumping until 1948. He also kept in touch with ski sport in this country: first through friends in Steamboat, then by greeting Colorado Olympians who invaded Norway for the Winter Games of 1952. The man who inspired countless Coloradans died in 1955 at age 78 but, wherever skiers congregate in North America, the fame of Carl Howelsen is a living memory."

Carl Howelsen was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1969.

Colorado Ski Authority is an information and resource-driven ski site serving the mountains and resorts in Colorado. It compiled the following timeline "Our aim is to be the go-to site for all things. Colorado skiing and snowboarding." https://coloradoskiauthority.com

Colorado Ski History Timeline

The Colorado ski industry was born in the area of Sulphur Springs and Steamboat Springs. Carl Howelson was a champion European ski jumper who had traveled to the Denver area to live. Howelson was a participant at many winter carnivals and this helped to spark local interest in the sport. It was reported that in early 1914, Howelson gave a ski jumping demonstration near Denver (At Inspiration Point) that attracted approximately 20,000 people.

Early Days Of Colorado Skiing

1911 – On Dec. 31, 1911; Carl Howelson and Angell Schmidt participated in a ski jumping exhibition after the Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival. Hot Sulphur Springs is located approximately 70 miles to the east of Steamboat Springs by road.

The first Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival took place on Dec. 30, 1911, and was put on by the Hot Sulpher Srings Winter Sports Club. Carl Howelson and Angel Schmidt arrived from Denver late in the evening on the 30. They built a ski jump behind John Peyer’s house the next day and proceeded to uphold their reputation as champion skiers.

1912 – The first Sulpher Springs carnival of the winter was successful enough to prompt a 3-day winter carnival in February of 1912 (Feb. 10-12). This carnival consisted of a sledding race, an amateur ski race, and a professional ski race – of which Carl Howelson was the winner with a time of 16 seconds. Howelson is also credited by many sources as having given an impressive ski jumping exhibition here in which he jumped 164 feet.

1913 – Carl Howelson wins 1st place at the second annual Hot Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival ski jumping competition. Howelson wins the competition with a jumping distance of 163 feet.

1914 – The Steamboat Springs Mid-Winter Carnival is planned for the days following the annual Sulphur Springs Winter Carnival. This allows Carl Howelson and others to travel from Denver to attend both events. Carl Howelson is put in charge of preparing the snow jumps for the competition.

An article published in the Steamboat Pilot on Jan. 7, 1914 indicates that a 20-foot high ski jumping tower was already in place in Steamboat Springs. The newspaper reports that a committee had been formed to oversee the winter carnival, and it was agreed upon that an additional 40 feet of height would be added to the tower; bringing the total height of the ski jumping tower to 60 feet.

1914 – The ski jump for the 1915 Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival was constructed in an area that was called Elk Park. This hill would later become known as Howelson Hill (Renamed in 1917).

Post-WWI Colorado Ski History

1936 – Loveland Ski Area is opened by J.C Blickensderfer.

1938 – The first rope tow is installed near the top of Wolf Creek Pass.

1939 – The Monarch Ski Area is opened for skiing by the Town of Salida.

1940 – Winter Park Ski Resort Opens. This ski area officially opened for the first time during the 1939-1940 ski season. Prior to this; skiers were already traveling to the area via train to ski.

1942 – Camp Hale is constructed (Later Ski Cooper). Camp Hale was initially used as a training site for the 10th Mountain Division. This camp was built during the summer of 1942.

1945 – Friedl Pfeifer and Walter Paepcke form the Aspen Ski Company.

1946 – Arapahoe Basin Opens. This ski area was formed by Larry Jump, Sandy Schauffler, Dick Durrance, and Max Dercum. The mountain first opened for the ski season of 1946-1947, but the official dedication did not take place until Feb. 15, 1948.

1946 – Aspen Mountain (Ajax) Opens; owned and operated by the newly formed Aspen Ski Company.

1951 – The Berry Family acquires the Monarch Ski Area.

1955 – Wolf Creek Ski Area moves to its current location from the top of Wolf Creek Pass.

1957 – Earl Eaton and Pete Seibert purchase 500 acres of land at the base of what would later become the Vail Ski Resort.

1958 – Friedl Pfeifer opens the Buttermilk ski area as President of the Buttermilk Skiing Corporation.

1959 – Aspen Highlands is opened by Whipple Jones.

1959 – Pete Seibert forms the Vail Corporation and begins planning development of the Vail Ski Resort.

1958 – Construction begins on the Steamboat Ski resort.

1961 – Breckenridge Opens. This resort opened as the Peak 8 Ski Area in 1961. The new area was built by The Summit County Development Corporation.

1961 – Crested Butte Opens. The Crested Butte ski resort opened for skiing on Thanksgiving Day, 1961.

1962 – Vail Ski Resort opens for skiing on December 15, 1962.

1963 – Snowcat tours begin on what would become the Snowmass Ski Area.

1963 – Steamboat Ski Resort Opens. The Steamboat Ski Resort opens for skiing on January 12th, 1963.

1963 – The Aspen Ski Corporation acquires Buttermilk.

1966 – The Powderhorn Ski Area opens on Thanksgiving Day in 1966.

1967 – Snowmass Ski Area is opened for skiing by Bill Janss.

1970 – Keystone Ski Resort is opened for skiing on November 21, 1970.

1971 – Construction begins on Copper Mountain.

1972 – Telluride Ski Resort opens for skiing. This resort was largely a project of Joseph Zoline and Emile Allais.

1972 – Copper Mountain opens for skiing on November 15, 1972.

1973 – The Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel opens to travelers.

1972 – Colorado rejects the winning bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics.

1976 – The Colorado Ski Museum is founded in Vail, Colorado.

1977 – Ground breaking ceremony for the Beaver Creek Ski Resort is held on July 28, 1977.

1980 – Beaver Creek Ski Resort Opens.

Glenn Miller: Fort Morgan to an American symbol

World was in the mood for a moonlight 

serenade on the "Chattanooga Choo Choo"

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Having just made it through the "Roaring Twenties, "Dust Bowl," the Great Depression, Prohibition and being launched into World War II, must have been quite the ride for those folks at the time. Imagine ... one day your are in high school in Fort Morgan, Colo., playing a little football and maybe making music on the weekends.  And just a few short years later, you are an international sensation, Gold Records, a military icon, and a symbol and hero of American virtue. 

"Glenn Miller is Fort Morgan High School's most famous graduate. His recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" sold over 1,200,000 copies before RCA awarded him the first gold record in history," says information from the city of Fort Morgan.

"Glenn Miller joined the high school football team as a left end in the fall of 1919. The Maroons won the Northern Colorado Football Conference in 1920, and Glenn was named the Best Left End in Colorado," says city info.

"Meanwhile, Elmer Wells, his band and orchestra director, was having Glenn sit in with his own dance band, The Wells of Music, which played around Morgan County on weekends. This influenced Glenn to start his own dance band, the Mick-Miller Melody Five. By now, the desire to play trombone and to arrange music for his band was so great, he decided to make music his lifetime career. That spark of inspiration kindled by Elmer Wells eventually caused Glenn to organize and lead the most popular band of all of the big band era - The Glenn Miller Orchestra. " 

In 1942, Miller volunteered to join the U.S. military to entertain troops during World War II, ending up with the U.S. Army Air Forces. On December 15, 1944, while flying to Paris, Miller's aircraft disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

Glenn Miller was born on March 1, 1904, in Clarinda, Iowa. His family was poor, moving often during his childhood, first to Nebraska, and then to Fort Morgan, Colorado. Miller studied music during high school, and soon after graduating in 1921, he took his first professional job in the Denver area, with Boyd Senter’s popular orchestra, according to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame

He then enrolled at the University of Colorado, where he spent his time outside of class playing in fellow student Holly Moyer’s band. He left college in 1923 to devote his full attention to his career as a musician and arranger.

Joining Ben Pollack’s band, Miller went to Los Angeles, to Chicago, and eventually to New York in early 1928, where he married his college sweetheart, Helen Burger. After leaving Pollack, Miller joined Smith Ballew’s orchestra, then the newly formed Dorsey Brothers band.

He finally decided to launch his own band in January 1937. At the end of the year, he disbanded it, discouraged and in debt. With financial help, he tried again the following spring. This time he had the players he wanted to go with his gifts as an arranger, and he developed a clarinet-led reed section and created what came to be known as the “Miller sound.”

In 1938, Miller signed with Victor’s Bluebird label. “Little Brown Jug,” “In the Mood” and his signature “Moonlight Serenade” played from jukeboxes and on radios across the country.

By the fall of 1939, the Glenn Miller Orchestra was the nation’s hottest attraction.

“Tuxedo Junction” and “A String of Pearls” reached No. 1 on the top-sellers chart, and Miller was awarded the first-ever gold record in 1942 for selling more than one million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”

"With the onset of World War II, Miller, at 37, was determined to take part in the war effort. Entering the Army in October 1942, he molded the nation’s most popular service band. That U.S. Air Force Band went to England in the summer of 1944, entertaining troops at 71 concerts in five months. On the afternoon of December 15, while flying from the south of England to newly liberated Paris to lead a concert to be broadcast on Christmas, the small plane carrying Major Glenn Miller disappeared over the English Channel, ending a brilliant and influential career in American popular music," according to Colorado Music Hall of Fame.

In 1923, Miller entered the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he joined Sigma Nu fraternity. He spent most of his time away from school, attending auditions and playing any gigs he could get, including with Boyd Senter's band in Denver. After failing three out of five classes, he dropped out of school to pursue a career in music.

He studied the Schillinger system with Joseph Schillinger, under whose tutelage he composed what became his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade". In 1926, Miller toured with several groups, landing a good spot in Ben Pollack's group in Los Angeles. He also played for Victor Young, which allowed him to be mentored by other professional musicians. In the beginning, he was the main trombone soloist of the band, but when Jack Teagarden joined Pollack's band in 1928, Miller found that his solos were cut drastically. He realized that his future was in arranging and composing.

He had a songbook published in Chicago in 1928 entitled Glenn Miller's 125 Jazz Breaks for Trombone by the Melrose Brothers. During his time with Pollack, he wrote several arrangements. He wrote his first composition, "Room 1411", with Benny Goodman, and Brunswick Records released it as a 78 rpm record under the name "Benny Goodman's Boys".

In 1928, when the band arrived in New York City, he sent for and married his college sweetheart, Helen Burger. He was a member of Red Nichols's orchestra in 1930, and because of Nichols, he played in the pit bands of two Broadway shows, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy. The band included Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa.

In 1942, at the peak of his civilian career, Miller decided to join the war effort, forsaking an income of $15,000 to $20,000 per week in civilian life (equivalent to $238,000 to $317,000 per week in 2020), including a home in Tenafly, New Jersey.

At 38, Miller was too old to be drafted and first volunteered for the Navy, but was told that they did not need his services. Miller then wrote to Army Brigadier General Charles Young. He persuaded the U. S. Army to accept him so he could, in his own words, "be placed in charge of a modernized Army band".

Miller's civilian band played its last concert in Passaic, New Jersey, on September 27, 1942, with the last song played by the Miller civilian band being "Jukebox Saturday Night"—featuring an appearance by Harry James on trumpet. His patriotic intention of entertaining the Allied Forces earned him the rank of captain, and he was soon promoted to major by August 1944.

Miller reported at Omaha on Oct. 8, 1942, to the Seventh Service Command as a captain in the Army Specialist Corps. Miller was soon transferred to the Army Air Forces. Captain Glenn Miller served initially as assistant special services officer for the Army Air Forces Southeast Training Center at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1942. He played trombone with the Rhythmaires, a 15-piece dance band, in both Montgomery and in service clubs and recreation halls on Maxwell. 

Miller also appeared on both WAPI (Birmingham, Alabama) and WSFA radio (Montgomery), promoting the activities of civil service women aircraft mechanics employed at Maxwell. At Maxwell, Miller was helped by saxophonist Gerald "Jerry" Yelverton, a veteran of Miller's prewar orchestra. Miller, playing initially with Yelverton's local band, measured the impact of his modernizing concepts on a small scale and quickly and efficiently made adaptations that were used in his famous 418th AAF band in 1943 and 1944.

Miller initially formed a large marching band that was to be the core of a network of service orchestras. His attempts at modernizing military music were met with some resistance from tradition-minded career officers, but Miller's fame and support from other senior leaders allowed him to continue.

Miller's arrangement of "St. Louis Blues March," combined blues and jazz with the traditional military march. Miller's weekly radio broadcast I Sustain the Wings, for which he co-wrote the eponymous theme song, moved from New Haven to New York City and was very popular. 

Soon he had permission for to form his 50-piece Army Air Force Band and take it to England in the summer of 1944, where he gave 800 performances.  In England, now Major Miller cut a series of records at EMI-owned Abbey Road Studios. The recordings the AAF band made in 1944 at Abbey Road were propaganda broadcasts for the Office of War Information. Many songs are sung in German by Johnny Desmond, and Glenn Miller speaks in German about the war effort. 

Before Miller disappeared, his music was used by World War II AFN radio broadcasting for entertainment and morale, as well as counter-propaganda to denounce fascist oppression in Europe. His broadcasts included short playlets that dramatized the Four Freedoms promulgated by the Roosevelt administration, summarizing the official goals of the Allies; they equated American music with free expression and American culture. 

"America means freedom and there's no expression of freedom quite so sincere as music," he said in one radio address.

Miller-led AAF Orchestra also recorded songs with American singer Dinah Shore at the Abbey Road studios and were the last recordings made by the band while being led by Miller. They were stored with HMV/EMI for 50 years, and not released until their European copyright expired in 1994. 

In summarizing Miller's military career, General Jimmy Doolittle said, "next to a letter from home, that organization was the greatest morale builder in the European Theater of Operations."

Glenn Miller's First Gold Record (click link below, to view)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBwmLRNLJ4&t=52s

Leadville's fame and famous, booms and busts

The early Californication of Colorado

Hydraulic mining, California Gulch, Colorado, 

photographed and published by W.G. Chamberlain, 1878.

 

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

The early gold camp (it was a gold camp first,) was known by many names: Slabtown, Boughtown, Cloud City, Carbonate, California Gulch, Harrison,  Agassiz, Oro City, and more. When the time came for legal adoption, controversy raged. "One faction favored Harrison for Harrison of the Harrison Reduction Works. Horace Tabor, storekeeper, favored Leadville, and prevailed according to "Colorado Place Names" by Geo R. Eicher. The town's name was chosen for the large amount argentiferous lead ores in the vicinity.

Like the rich and famous of Hollywood, over time, Leadville's visitor and resident list reads like a Who's Who for for early Colorado. 

Horace Tabor, the silver king, comes to mind of course, and his first and second wives, Augusta and Baby Doe. Augusta Tabor was the first postmistress, there, in fact. In 1883 Horace Tabor divorced his wife of 25 years and married Baby Doe McCourt, who was half his age. Tabor was by then a US senator, and the divorce and marriage caused a scandal in Colorado and beyond. For several years the couple lived a lavish lifestyle in a Denver mansion, but Tabor, one of the wealthiest men in Colorado, lost his fortune when the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act caused the Panic of 1893. He died destitute but remained convinced that the price of silver would rebound. According to legend, he told Baby Doe to "hold on the Matchless mine ... it will make millions again when silver comes back." She returned to Leadville with her daughters, Silver Dollar and Lily, where she spent the rest of her life believing Tabor's prediction. At one time the "best dressed woman in the West", she lived in a cabin at the Matchless Mine for the last three decades of her life. After a snowstorm in March 1935, she was found frozen in her cabin, aged about 81 years.

Mart Duggan, gunslinger and the city's third marshal was asked to come to clean up the town. The first city marshal there was run out of town a few days after he was appointed, and his replacement was shot dead within a month by one of his deputies. Fearing the town would be lost to the lawless element, Mayor Horace Tabor sent for Mart Duggan, who was living in Denver, as a replacement. Duggan is little-known today, but was well known at the time as a fearless gunfighter. Using strong-arm and lawless tactics, during his two stints as marshal Duggan brought order to Leadville by 1880 when he stepped down. He was shot and killed in 1888 by an unknown assailant, most likely an enemy he had made when he was a Leadville marshal. Historian Robert Dearment writes, "Mart Duggan was a quick-shooting, hard-drinking, brawling tough Irish man, but he was exactly the kind of man a tough, hard-drinking, quick-shooting camp like Leadville needed in its earliest days. His name is all but forgotten today, but the name 'Matt Dillon' is recognized around the world. Such are the vagaries of life."

Alice Ivers, better known as Poker Alice, was a card player and dealer of the Old West who learned her trade in Leadville. Born in Devonshire, her family moved to America when she was a small girl. They first settled in Virginia, where she attended an elite girls' boarding school. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Leadville when the silver boom drew hundreds of new residents to the area. At the age of twenty she married a mining engineer who, like many of the men at that time, frequented the numerous gambling halls in Leadville. Alice went along, at first just observing, but eventually she began to sit in on the games as well. After a few years of marriage her husband was killed in a mining accident and she turned to cards to support herself. Alice was attractive, dressed in the latest fashions, and was in great demand as a dealer. Eventually Alice left Leadville to travel the gambling circuit, as was common of the male gamblers of that time. She continued to dress in the latest fashions but took to smoking cigars. Well known throughout the West, gambling halls welcomed her because she was good for business. In her later years, Alice claimed to have won more than $250,000 at the gaming tables and never once cheated.

Texas Jack Omohundro, Confederate scout, cowboy and stage actor with "Buffalo Bill" Cody's travelling revue, died of pneumonia a month before his 34th birthday in summer 1880 in Leadville, where he was living on a small estate with his wife, ballerina Giuseppina Morlacchi.

"Doc" John Henry Holliday, about 1883, shortly after the gun fight at the O.K. Corral,  moved to Leadville, where he dealt faro. On August 19, 1884, he shot ex-Leadville policeman Billy Allen, who had threatened him for failing to pay a $5 debt. Despite overwhelming evidence implicating him, a jury found Holliday not guilty of the shooting or attempted murder.

Luke Short, Gunfighter and professional gambler, also spent time in Leadville.

Margaret "Molly" Brown, who became known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," moved to Leadville when she was 18. In 1886 she married a mining engineer who was twelve years older, James J. Brown. The Brown family acquired great wealth in 1893 when Brown was instrumental in the discovery of a substantial gold ore seam at the Little Jonny Mine.The mine was owned by his employers, the Ibex Mining Company. Margaret Brown became famous because of her survival of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, after exhorting the crew of Lifeboat No. 6 to return to look for survivors. A 1960 Broadway musical based on her life was produced, along with a 1964 film adaptation of the musical, both titled The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her home in Denver has been preserved as the Molly Brown House Museum.

Meyer Guggenheim of the Guggenheim family started out in Leadville in mining and smelting. The family went on to possess one of the largest fortunes in the world. Family members have become known for their philanthropy in diverse areas such as modern art and aviation, including several Guggenheim Museums.

Oscar Wilde appeared at the Tabor Opera House during his 1882 American Aesthetic Movement lecture tour. The reviews were mixed, and the press satirized Wilde in cartoons as an English dandy decorated with sunflowers and lilies, the floral emblems of the Aesthetic Movement. A Kansas newspaper described the event: Oscar Wilde's visit to Leadville excited a great deal of interest and curiosity. The Tabor-opera house where he lectured was packed full. It was rumored that an attempt would be made by a number of young men to ridicule him by coming to the lecture in exaggerated costume with enormous sunflowers and lilies and to introduce a number of characters in the costume of the Western "bad men." Probably, however, better counsel prevailed and no disturbance took place. Mayor David H. Dougan invited Wilde to tour the Matchless Mine and name its new lode "The Oscar". Wilde later recounted a visit to a local saloon, "where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice – 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best."

Leadville historic timeline

Leadville.com, the city's site, provides a timeline with some of the following history. 

"Once the second largest city in Colorado and a contender for the state capital, Leadville’s treasure is now found in its 70-square-block historic district where Victorian architecture reigns and stories of the wild west come alive. From gunslingers, outlaws, and con men to madams, love triangles, and lawmen, Leadville had it all. Today, they city’s vibrant history is told through the efforts of eight museums and two walking tours,"says the site.

1860 – Abe Lee Discovers Gold

April 26, 1860, Abe Lee discovered a rich load of placer gold in California Gulch, one mile east of Leadville. In the fall, Leadville’s population reached 10,000 and $2 million in gold had been extracted from California Gulch and nearby Iowa Gulch. Lee staked all of California Gulch with speculative claims, which led to the establishment of the Bylaws of the California Mining District—regulations on the number, size, and type of claims that could be filed. Because of these laws, more prospectors descended upon an already crowded California Gulch.

1877 – Silver Discovered

By 1866, most of Leadville’s placer gold deposits had been depleted, causing many miners to pack up and leave. The remaining prospectors moved closer to town where heavy, black sand blanketed the area. In 1877, after assays contained 15 ounces of silver per ton. Early silver prospectors kept this silver discovery a secret for nearly two years. By 1879, word had spread and Leadville once again became a boom town.

Prospectors and merchants quickly returned to Leadville. Many new hotels, restaurants, saloons, and brothels sprang up. Mines spread southward and fortunes, like Horace Tabor’s and the Guggenheim’s, were made.

1878 – Leadville Gets its Name

Leadville has had several names since its discovery. It’s been known as California Gulch, Boughton, because of the once popular shelters made of tree boughs, Cloud City, because of the way the town is often covered in clouds, Harrison, after the owner of the first smelter, and Slabtown, because of the temporary homes built on slabs. It wasn’t until 1878, when the town petitioned for its first post office, that Horace Tabor gave it its official name, Leadville, after the lead ore found in the area.

1879 – Tabor Opera House Opens

Horace Tabor, one of the country’s most notorious silver magnates, known for, among other things construction of the Tabor Opera House, “the finest theater between St. Louis and San Francisco.”
Building’s materials were brought up in  wagons, making it one of the costliest buildings ever constructed in Colorado. Three stories high, made of stone, brick, and iron, and trimmed with Portland cement, the exterior was painted in red, gold, white, and sky-blue. Inside, red plush seats filled the theater and a curtain with an image of the Royal Gorge draped on the stage. Despite its opulence, the Tabor Opera House built in only 100 days.


1879 – Interlaken Hotel Opens

In 1879, John Statley and Charles Thomas built a hotel on the edge of Twin Lakes. Four years later, James V. Dexter bought the property and turned it into one of the most luxurious resorts Colorado had to offer.
Interlaken Resort, where visitors enjoyed gorgeous lake views, a log tavern, a pool hall, and a shed to accommodate horses —eventually fell on hard times when the lakes’ original dam, built at the turn of the century, was troubled by stagnation,  and suspected of causing disease.
The remains of Interlaken Resort and Dexter’s cabin, built in the mid-1890s, can still be seen today.

1893 – The Bust of the Silver Kings

The 1879 Silver Boom dramatically altered Colorado economy and Leadville’s silver lode alone brought in $82 million,  in part because of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the U.S. government to purchase millions of ounces of silver each year. The Act was repealed in 1893, busting silver prices, dropping wages, and putting miners and others out of work. Silver barons, like Horace Tabor, lost huge fortunes and Leadville’s economy limped accordingly.

Ice Palace, 1896, William Henry Jackson

1896 – Creation of the Leadville Ice Palace

After the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, hoping to draw visitors, create jobs, and revitalize the economy, Leadville’s residents built the Leadville Ice Palace, a “fairytale come true.” Constructed in 36 days using 5,000 tons of ice, this 58,000-square-foot palace had an ice skating rink, a curling rink, a theater, toboggan runs, a ballroom, a dance floor, gaming rooms, and a carousel house.
Between Seventh Street and Eighth Street on the top of Capital Hill, Leadville’s Ice Palace was open for three months, from January 1, to March 28, when it started to melt and was condemned. Still, people continued to use the building all the way through June, when the skating rink was at last unusable.
The Ice Palace turned out to be a financial disaster for investors, but visitors said that when “the sun shone through the ice, it looked like 1,000 sparkling lights.”

1907 – San Isabel National Forest Established

San Isabel National Forest is one of eleven national forests in Colorado and features more than a million acres of snow-capped peaks, sparkling lakes, rich meadows, and raging rivers. In 1902, lands were first set aside as forest reserve. In 1907, this forest reserve was officially named San Isabel National Forest. From 1907 to 1945, the San Isabel National Forest grew to include several other large forests. Today, the forest has over 800 miles of hiking trails, several ski areas, 19 fourteeners, several scenic byways, and dozens of campgrounds.

Photos of Leadville, Main Street, in September, 1941, by Marion Post Wolcott

Our dreams, outside the center's gate

Panorama of Granada Relocation Center, Amache, Colorado, showing in the foreground a typical barracks unit ... consisting of 12 six-room apartment barrack buildings, a recreation hall, laundry and bathhouse, and the mess hall, constructed by Army Engineers. The Center is made up of 30 such blocks, complemented by hospital buildings, adminstrative office buildings, living quarters, general warehouse structures and Military Police quarters. War Relocation Authority photo.

Family Christmas Spirit

Tomorrow is Christmas. For the majority of us, it is the second one within the confines of a relocation center. It's different from those Christmases we enjoyed back in the state of sunshine. Somehow, the true meaning of the spirit of Christmas are lacking. We are often blinded because we no longer have the opportunity to attend those gala Christmas eve parties; because we are no longer able to receive or give Christmas gifts in abundance: because we are no longer able to enjoy the small things that go with Christmas time. But if that's our true conception of a "White Christmas," we have yet to learn and receive the real rewards that go with the true Christmas spirit — especially in our family groups.

No matter where we are, no matter what adverse conditions we encounter, we can and must enjoy a certain degree of Christmas spirit. Remember when Charles Dickens wrote one must be a misanthrope if he didn't have some sort of pleasant associations aroused at the thought of Christmas time? It is worth a thought or two.

From the Granada Pioneer (Amache, Colo.), December 24, 1943, (Christmas EDITION)

Christmas in captivity

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the forced relocation of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast with Executive Order 9066. In the spring of 1942, some 120,000 Japanese Americans were "evacuated" and placed into temporary "assembly centers" before being transferred to more permanent and isolated "relocation centers" like Granada, Colo., or Amache, as it was known to those forced to live there. 

Run by the War Relocation Authority, the government body responsible for administration of the incarceration program, Granada was one of ten such camps, the only one to be built on private land. The camp site covered 10,000 acres , of which only 640 acres  was used for residential, community and administrative buildings. The remaining land was used in agricultural projects. The land was owned by several ranchers and farmers before the war, and only one of these property owners willingly sold his acreage to make way for the camp, creating tension between the WRA and the other landholders, whose parcels were taken via condemnation. 

However, this did not necessarily translate to overall resistance to Japanese Americans being housed in the area: Colorado Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr was one of the few to welcome the Japanese Americans and the only governor not to oppose the establishment of a WRA camp in his state, going against the anti-Japanese sentiment of the times.

While Colorado Governor Ralph Carr's campaign policies were aimed at dismantling the expensive bureaucracy of the New Deal, Carr still supported Roosevelt's foreign policy and favored American entrance into World War II after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The war with Japan initiated a chain of events that bred discrimination and intolerance toward Japanese-Americans. 

In 1942 an estimated 120,000 Japanese-Americans were stripped of their property and possessions. These displaced citizens were resettled in land-locked states by the War Relocation Authority so that the supposed "yellow peril" could be contained. The question on many Coloradans' minds was not whether American citizens of Japanese decent should be stripped of their rights and put in internment camps, but where the camps should be. The overwhelming opinion of the populace was typified by a series of highway billboards proclaiming, "Japs keep going."

In other states, the Governors took aggressive stances against allowing relocation camps in their States.
The Governor of Wyoming at the time went as far as saying:
“There will be Japs hanging from every pine tree.” If the Federal Government tried to relocate West Coast Japanese Americans there.

One of the few voices of reason during wartime was Governor Carr, who continued to treat the Japanese-Americans with respect and sought to help them keep their American citizenship. He sacrificed his political career to bravely confront the often-dark side of human nature. 

At one time, the New York Times consider Carr as being on the path to become president of the United States.

"If you harm them, you must harm me. I was brought up in a small town where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred. I grew to despise it because it threatened the happiness of you and you and you." Carr's selfless devotion to all Americans, while destroying his hopes for a senate seat, did in the end become extolled as, "a small voice but a strong voice."

Also in the same edition of the Granada Pioneer (Amache, Colo.), 

December 24, 1943, (Christmas EDITION)

But we, who remain behind the barbed wire fences, must remember that each passing day will make it more and more difficult return to the towering skyscrapers, broad boulevards or to a farm in a green valley.

Even now as I write this message, there are are evacuees with suit-cases in hand and holding overcoats boarding pullmans, leaving the drab conditions, suffocating dust, shivering cold and sweltering heat that go with any relocation center.

As we hear that popular song, "I am dreaming of White Christmas," let's remember to make that dream

a reality. Our dreams of returning to America's life stream, are dreams of all minority groups. In this we can find hope and renewed strength for the difficult task which lies ahead.

As we celebrate our second Christmas tomorrow, we hope another Christmas dawns. The majority of the 100,000 remaining evacuees will see and observe "with peace on earth, good will toward men" from outside the center gates. 

__ from Editor, Sueo Sako

An etched wooden sign "Amache Japanese Relocation Camp," complete with outlines of buildings, one of the only remnants, save for a few cement foundations a little nearby graveyard, of the Amache Camp, where Japanese and Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II, near the town of Granada in Prowers County, Colorado. 2015, Carol M. Highsmith, photographer.

Montrose Mercury marks modern millennium milestone

Newsboy on Main Street, Montrose, Colorado, Rothstein photo.
 

Quicksilver before the digital age

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

A little more than 600 years ago, in 1418 to be exact, the little-known, and often disputed date of the earliest piece of printing was offered in the form of a wood-cut of the Blessed Virgin in Brussels. About 30 years later, Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, a German inventor, printer, publisher, and goldsmith; introduced a mechanical movable-type printing press and printed the first book, known to most as the Gutenberg Bible. His work started a revolution in Europe and is commonly thought of as the most significant milestone of the second millennium, as it marks the beginning of modern human history. 

By 1622, the first newspaper in England, The Weekly Press, was off the press and on the streets telling folks that could read at the time about the German wars. Forty years later, give or take, and you could advertise product or services, if you could strike an agreement with a publisher or printer. By the end of that millennium, you might read the first women's newspaper Ladies Mercury, of London, or the first example of a truly free press, when the powers that be, stopped requiring licensing, and even read the first comic newspaper in the form of the Merrie Mercury. or the first political info in Daniel Defoe's Mercure Scandals.

Benjamin Franklin was penning his "Busy Body" articles and they appeared in the American Weekly Mercury by 1719. Early newspaper publishers seemed to have a thing for 'quick silver,' as a publication title.

A hundred years later, lithographic printing had developed, machine-made paper was available, and a person could use a hand press to get the paper out. We were working hard on type-casting and composing machines to speed up the process.

Flash forward to 1920, and three main departments of a newspaper have developed, according to Newspaper Editing: a manual for editors, copy readers, and students of newspaper desk work, by Grant Milner Hyde, Instructor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin.

1, The business office: Duty is primarily responsible to make the enterprise financially successful.

2. The mechanical plant: At the time, this department included typesetters, printers, linotype operators, copy cutters, bank men, proof readers in the composing room. In the Stereotype room, where all responsible for getting to plate were located. And in the pressroom, you had printers, mailroom workers, etc...

3. The Editorial department: "The third and most important division of the newspaper's plant is the editorial department which prepares all the reading matter, except advertisements, that goes into the printed paper," Hyde swears.

But once printed, the paper has to be distributed. Maybe by mail, carriers, or others – using planes, trains and animals, and autos. Or, as in the case of the modern product, digital distribution. But let us explore the paper of the last century photographically, with these photos by Russell Lee and Arthur Rostein  taken in 1939 and 1940, in Montrose, Colorado, for the Farm Security Administration, and Office of War Information.

Distributing newspapers to newsboys at the railroad station. Montrose, Colorado. Lee photo.

Taking the newspapers off the morning train, Montrose, Colorado. Lee photo.

Montrose, Colorado, is junction point for standard gauge and narrow gauge railroads and bus lines. Papers and mail are being loaded into bus for transporting to towns along the route, Lee photo.

Newsboys getting the papers just after the arrival of the morning train, Montrose, Colorado. While there is a daily paper in this town here as in most towns of this size, the papers from the larger cities are popular] Lee photo.

Click on photos to view more closely.

Boy bandit kills Sheriff Oscar Meyer

Ladies love outlaws, like babies love stray dogs. Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold, outlaws touch ladies somewhere deep down in their soul. 

___ Lee Clayton, for Waylon Jennings

Career criminal James "Mad Dog" Sherbondy reads a newspaper in his prison cell at the State Penitentiary in Canon City. First convicted in 1937 of murdering a Sheriff, Sherbondy died in a shootout on the sidewalk in front of the Denver Post in 1969. His head is half shaved, bars and galvanized steel line the interior walls behind him. Photographed by Karol Smith, 1950. William K. Patterson, Mss. Collection, Western History / Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library.

Boy Bandit Escapes 

After Shooting Down Oscar Meyer on Tennessee Pass 

__ from headline in Eagle Valley Enterprise on Nov. 5, 1937.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Jim Sherbondy was accustomed to being in trouble, even as early as 17.

Oscar Meyer, 49, of Red Cliff, was a licensed mortician, and a deputy sheriff. "Oscar Meyer was a fearless law officer. He had kept the peace at Red Cliff for many years where others failed. He was rarely armed, never carried a gun, but would wade into a pack of drunken fighting men armed with knives and clubs barehanded and straighten out the trouble," reported the Enterprise.

In fact, Meyer was unarmed on Nov. 2 when he answered a law enforcement call on Tennessee Pass. As he lay bleeding to death on the road, Meyer told a passing motorist who had shot him: 17-year-old Red Cliff resident Jim Sherbondy.

Described by newspapers as a "slight, good-looking boy," Sherbondy was a troubled young man. Wayne Trujillo of Denver, a great-great nephew of Oscar Meyer, says it is possible that Sherbondy and Meyer had a sort of running feud. Once captured, Sherbondy reportedly told officers that his dislike for Meyer dated back to his school days, when Meyer was the truant officer and forced his parents to send him to school. Sherbondy also accused Meyer of being a "tough cop" who subdued drunken men by beating them over the head with a gun. Meyer did have a reputation for being tough.

"Regardless of which picture of Meyer is accurate, there is no doubt that "boy bandit" was already in trouble on the day Meyer died. Sherbondy, the son of Shirl Sherbondy, who worked for the New Jersey Zinc Mine at Gilman, was a suspect in an armed robbery in Chicago. Eagle County law officers had
been alerted, and were on the lookout for the boy," wrote Kathy Heicher Vail Daily Trail staff.

"Indeed, Sherbondy was hiding out with his family in Red Cliff. On Tuesday, Nov. 2, his mother, Nannie, loaded up her three sons and the family's belongings in a Ford Pickup, and drove out of town, headed for Arkansas. However, as they pulled out of town, a high school girl saw Jim Sherbondy, and told Oscar Meyer," says Kathy Heicher in  her Vail Daily Trail report.

At Sherbondy's trial, Meyer's wife, Ollie Graham Meyer, a music teacher, testified that her husband hurriedly left the house in his "laboring clothes," without a coat, and left both of his guns at home in a dresser drawer, Heicher wrote.

According to newspaper reports, Meyer quickly overtook the Sherbondy vehicle a mile and a half west of the Tennessee Pass summit, crowded the truck over to the side of the road, and stopped it. Stepping out of his car, Meyer informed Sherbondy that he was under arrest, and ordered him to surrender. Jim Sherbondy stepped out with a gun and fired, hitting Meyer twice in the chest.

Sherbondy then jumped in Meyer's car, and fled the scene, leaving Meyer and his family behind. A few minutes later, a passing motorist stopped. The dying Meyer named Sherbondy as his killer, says Heicher.

"The town reacted to news of Meyer's death with seething anger. Posses were organized, and hills along Tennessee Pass were searched. The Enterprise reported that "had he (Sherbondy) been found that night, his treatment would have been anything but gentle."


Newspaper reports said Oscar Meyer was buried in the Red Cliff Cemetery in the midst of a blizzard. An estimated 600 people attended the services. The casket was surrounded by 135 bouquets of flowers. Judge Luby, an army buddy of Meyer, was one of the pall bearers.

Sherbondy remained at large for three weeks, apparently spending nearly a week walking from Tennessee Pass to Wolcott, where he hid in a haystack, then jumped a train at State Bridge. He was eventually arrested in Hastings, Neb. when officers recognized his face from a wanted poster. Eagle County Sheriff Murray Wilson brought Sherbondy back to jail, says Heicher.

Meanwhile, officers learned that Sherbondy was wanted in Denver and Chicago on charges of aggravated robbery; and wanted in Pueblo for car theft. Wilson later described Sherbondy to the newspaper as a "cold-blooded, heartless" young man, who boasted of his crimes, and showed no remorse. Sherbondy reportedly had a "sardonic grin" on his face when he pleaded guilty to Oscar Meyer's murder in early December.

Testifying at his own sentencing hearing, Sherbondy denied any intent in the murder. Rather, the boy said he was so "scared and excited" that he did not know what he was doing. He said he thought Meyer was reaching for a gun when he shot him.

Calling Sherbondy a "depraved and wicked killer, like a wild and vicious animal," a visiting District Judge sentenced him to life in prison. It was two days before Sherbondy's 18th birthday.

Escapes

Much of Sherbondy's prison years were spent in solitary confinement. In prison, he earned the nickname "Mad Dog." On New Year's Eve, 1947, Sherbondy was one of a dozen inmates who escaped the State Prison in Canon City. He made his way to a nearby farm, where he held a family hostage.
However, when the one of the hostages, a seven-year-old boy, developed appendicitis, Sherbondy surrendered quietly so the boy could be treated. Hollywood eventually made a movie called "Canon City", based on the incident.

Sherbondy's second attempt at escape in 1952 failed. He later attempted suicide, then, for the next decade, was a model prisoner, who tutored kids at the state reformatory in Buena Vista.

In 1962, he was paroled to Eagle County, at age 43. That freedom, was short lived, lasting only 10 months, when a parole violation (armed robbery and possession of explosives), saw him back in prison.

Again, Sherbondy became a model prisoner. Late in October, 1969, he walked away from a prison honor camp at Buckley Air National Guard Center in Denver.

Nov. 28, Denver police officers spotted Sherbondy driving in downtown Denver. After a car chase, Sherbondy jumped out in front of the Denver Post newspaper offices, between California and Welton Streets, at the time.

When Sherbondy pulled out a pistol and fired it, the police fired back. Sherbondy died on the sidewalk. Afterwards, police found two homemade pipe bombs in the bag that Sherbondy carried.

Eighty years ago — Nov. 2, 1937 — 

One of Eagle County’s most infamous murders happened on Tennessee Pass

Red Cliff resident Jim Sherbondy was only 17 years old when he shot and killed Eagle County Undersheriff Oscar Meyer. The murder touched off a nationwide manhunt, a highly publicized arrest and a closely followed trial.

Sherbondy was convicted of second-degree murder, and he celebrated his 18th birthday by reporting to the state penitentiary to begin serving a life sentence.

Jim Sherbondy Arrested in Nebraska Tuesday

___ The Eagle Valley Enterprise, November 26, 1937

OSCAR MEYERS MURDERER TAKEN EASILY—WAS UNARMED WHEN ARRESTED—HE IS NOW ON HIS WAY BACK TO COLORADO IN SHERIFF WILSONS CUSTODY. 

"A phone message was received from Mr. Wilson, who had arrived at Hastings, Thursday morning which relieved all doubt of the prisoner being Jim Sherbondy. According to the story lie told the sheriff, he worked his way west from Tennessee Pass instead of east, keeping to the hills along the railroad tracks. It took him seven or eight days to reach Wolcott, having little or nothing to eat In the meantime. From Wollcot he worked his way across the Piney divide to State Bridge, where he said he had something to eat. From there ho hiked to the Moffat tunnel where he caught a train into Denver. According to this, he could not have been in Pueblo the morning following the killing of Oscar Meyer," said the Eagle Valley Enterprise.

"James Sherbondy has been caught. Tuesday afternoon Sheriff Wilson received a telephone call from Chief of Police John A. James of Hastings, Nebr., which was the moat welcome message the sheriff has had in a long time . James told Wilson that he had just taken into custody Jim Sherbondy, 19, who on November 2, shot and killed Oscar W. Meyer near Tennessee Pass, and who has been the object of a nation wide search since Sargent F . E . Sullivan of the Hastings police force said that Sherbondy had come to tne police station Monday evening and asked for nights lodging, which was given him in the jail. He was permitted to leave about 8 o'clock the next morning. An hour or so later, Chief James received a copy of the police bulletin sent broadcast by the Sheriff last week, which contained Sherbondy's picture and description and offering a reward of $500 for his arrest and conviction. The police noticed the resemblance of the picture to the man they had just released. Sergt . Sullivan took another officer and went to the railroad yards and kept watch on outgoing trains. About 2:30 o clock on Tuesday afternoon Sherbondy was ar rested as he was boarding a west bound train . Apparently he was doubling back on his trail, as the train he was boarding was Denver bound. On being questioned by the police, Sherbondy finally admitted his identy, and expressed his willingness to return without extradition. He described the gun used in the killing, which tallies with that now in the possesion of Sheriff Wilson, found in a Denver pawn shop last week. Sherbondy was unarmed when taken by police. Hc is reported to have told the Hastings police that he didn't want to kill the Colorado officer but that he had to do it. Sheriff Wilson and Undersheriff Eldon Wilson left Wednesday morning for Nebraska to return Sherbondy to Colorado for trial for Meyer's murder Mr . Wilson has worked night and day on Sherbondy's capture since the day he committed the crime and then completely disappeared. He had uncovered his record and obtained the information concerning him which led to his arrest in Pennsylvania, on August 4, 1937 ; he was arrested at Carnegie for riding a train and served ten days in jail. He used the alias of Robert R. Roberts (his mother's maiden name) at that time, He has also gone under the names of Jim Arnold and Stanley J . Kanowichy during the short period of his career of crime. Sherbondy joined the U . S . army at Fort Logan, July 11 , 1936, and deserted there from at Fort Warren, Wyo ., July 31, 1936 . He is wanted in Denver, Colo ., and Chicago , Ill , on charges of aggravated robbery. The federal government was also looking for him on a charge of stealing an automobile in Pueblo last June and driving it into Nebraska, where he abandoned it. The relief in this community at the capture of Sherbondy is immense, and that he was taken without the loss of another life is also a relief, as it was firmly believed that he would resist capture to the very last. He had killed unarmed Oscar Meyer in order to keep from being taken into custody on a minor charge, and that he would go the limit in order to avoid trial for that murder seemed a logical conclusion," according to  the Eagle Valley Enterprise report.

Ashcroft strikes, population spikes, then falls to unlifelike

Boom, followed by bust in Pitkin County town

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

Both children of the Silver booms in West Slope Colorado, Ashcroft developed first, but was soon overshadowed by nearby Aspen, and relegated early to ghost town status. Even after WWII, when mining  interest shifted to winter sports, Ashcroft sputtered while Aspen blossomed.

In the spring of 1880 two prospectors, Charles B. Culver and W.F. Coxhead left the mining boomtown of Leadville in search of silver deposits in the Castle Creek Valley. Silver was found and Coxhead promoted their discovery with zeal back in Leadville. When he returned to "Castle Forks City," as it had been dubbed, he found that 23 other prospectors had joined "Crazy Culver." Together the men formed a Miners' Protective Association, built a courthouse and laid out the streets in Ashcroft in just two weeks. Each of their association's members paid $5, or one day's work, and $1, to draw for building lots. In all there were 97 members in the Ashcroft Miners' Protective Association, according to information from the Aspen Historical Society.

The town was renamed Ashcroft in 1882 after a rich ore strike was uncovered in Montezuma and Tam O'Shanter Mines. The mines were partially owned by H.A.W. Tabor of Leadville mining fame. Reportedly, Tabor and his second wife visited Ashcroft in 1883 and hosted a grand ball and banquet. Tabor also reportedly bought rounds of drinks for everyone in each of the town's 13 saloons, says Aspen Historical Society.

The same year that Tabor visited Ashcroft the town population had risen to around 2,000. Ashcroft was also home to two newspapers, a school, sawmills, a small smelter and 20 saloons. At this point in its history the town was larger than Aspen and closer to the railroad in Crested Butte.

By 1885 the town was home to between 2,000 and 3,500 people, had six hotels and 20 saloons. As quickly as the town went boom it went bust. The silver deposits that Culver and Coxhead initially discovered produced 14,000 ounces of silver to the ton at their onset. This production, however, was short-lived as the deposits were shallow. Though there were promises of a rail line to Crested Butte the promises never materialized and investors and workers were lured away to places such as Aspen. In 1884 another rich strike was discovered; this one, however, was in Aspen. This led to the end of the prosperity in Ashcroft as people began moving to Aspen.

By 1885 there were only 100 summer residents and $5.60 in the town coffers. By the turn of the 20th century, only a handful of aging, single men lived in Ashcroft. Though they all owned mining claims they spent most of their time fishing and hunting or reading and drinking in a local bar. The men traded stories for drinks and served as an informal employment agency, matching up men with the sporadic remaining work at the mines. Every four years the remaining citizens would hold municipal elections and choose officers from amongst themselves.

The town's last permanent resident, according to the lore, was Jack Leahy, and he died in 1939, making Ashcroft officially inhabited by only ghost at that time.

The 1930s saw a new flurry of interest in the village, with the burgeoning winter Olympics and winter sports that drew attention to Ashcroft. International sportsman Ted Ryan and his partner Billy Fiske, captain of America's gold medal Olympic bobsled team, built the Highland-Bavarian Lodge north of Ashcroft. They planned to build a European style ski resort complete with an aerial tramway leading up to Mount Hayden. World War II put an end to their plans as Fiske was killed in combat and Ryan ended up leasing Ashcroft to the U.S. Army for $1 a year.

During World War II, the Army's 10th Mountain Division used Ashcroft for mountaineering training, mostly during the summer of 1942. Following the war, most of the area's ski development occurred in Aspen and Ryan later deeded the site to the U.S. Forest Service.

In 1948 World War II veteran Stuart Mace, also a well known dog sledder, brought his family and dog sled operation to Ashcroft. In 1955 Mace and his Toklat huskies were featured in the television series Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, and the ghost town was fitted with false fronts to imitate a Canadian set for the filming of the series through 1958. Mace was given the use of 5 acres of land in exchange for caretaking what remaining holdings Highland-Bavarian had in the Ashcroft area. He devoted the remainder of his life to protecting the area from development and restoring the ecology. He was joined in that effort in 1974 by the Aspen Historical Society which helped Ashcroft make it to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Located 11 miles up Castle Creek Rd. from the roundabout at the west entrance to Aspen, the silver mining ghost town features the restored remains of several historic buildings, including a saloon, a post office, and the Bird House Hotel (formerly known as the Hotel View). "Guided tours and interpretive signage tell the stories of the former boom town nestled among spectacular alpine meadows at the headwaters of Castle Creek," says the Historic Society.

In September of 1941, Marion Post Wolcott, shooting photos for the eventually famous collection of Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-And-White Negatives, captured the ghost mining town of Ashcroft, Colorado, in these photos.

Killer of Sheriff Dunlap, Lewis rancher executed

Photo of the building containing gas chamber at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City, in 1931, a few years prior to Otis McDaniels' long walk on Valentines' Day in 1936.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

In my memory, folks around Dolores always called the steep gravel road descending into town "Dunlap Hill." It snaked its way up through the washes near the water tank above the high school, and track and football coaches used it torture sports teams into shape with intensity drills and such. You could hear the "Jake Brakes" of logging trucks dropping into town and the road itself continued on up over the hump, past the Pump Pasture turnoff, and Granath Mesa, Bean Canyon, Groundhog, on all the way to Norwood. Most of us couldn't have told you who Dunlap was, and only a few remembered a Sheriff had been killed a long time ago.

Sheriff William Wesley Dunlap was shot and killed with his own weapon when he was overpowered by two prisoners. Both prisoners were brothers responsible for the starvation death of an aged sheepman they had robbed, gagged, tied up, and then left to die in his cabin. Sheriff Dunlap was transporting the prisoners from Glenwood Springs to Cortez for a trial when they overpowered him in San Migual County, says Officer Down Memorial Page honoring police officers killed in the line of duty.

On February 14th, 1936, one of the subjects, Otis McDaniels was executed in the gas chamber. The other brother, Herbert, was sentenced to life.

"His calmness broken in the final minutes, Otis McDaniels, 30, was executed in the Colorado Penitentiary Gas Chamber for the shooting of Montezuma County Sheriff W.W. Dunlap," said wire clipping in the Clovis (New Mexico) News Journal, of Feb. 15,  1936.

"With the stoicism that marked his actions during the last two weeks, McDaniels sat in his cell and heard Warden Roy Best read the death warrant," the paper said.

"In the execution chamber as the white death fumes drifted slowly upward over McDaniel's body and toward his face, his composure broke. Teeth clenched and lips sealed, he held his breath after the first wisp reached his nose and inhaled sparingly when forced to."

"He required nine and one-half minutes before the three official physicians said he was dead. Ordinarily the procedure is over in a minute," said the Clovis News Journal report.

"It started on May 5, 1935. James Westfall, a 77-year-old man, was bound and gagged and died alone in his home. Herbert and Otis McDaniels had gone to his home to rob him. Thinking he would be found, they left him unable to free himself. After the capture of the pair of murderers, people in Dolores, Montezuma and La Plata counties were so incensed that talk of lynching became common," according to a history column in the Cortez Journal on Tuesday, June 4, 2013.

"To secure the prisoners, they were taken all the way to Glenwood Springs. A week later Sheriff Wesley Dunlap and his deputy, Lem Duncan, headed off to bring the two back to Cortez. When they reached Placerville they chose to follow the river and go by way of Norwood and Dove Creek," said the Journal article.

"They had gone only a couple of miles when they came across an overheated car. Sheriff Dunlap stepped out of his car to see if he could help and left his revolver on his seat. Otis was able to grab the gun and ordered the deputy to get out and lie face down. While Herbert stood with his shackled foot on the deputy's neck, Otis turned the gun toward the sheriff. Thinking he could talk Otis out of the gun, Dunlap started walking toward Otis. Otis however aimed at the sheriff and shot. The first shot wounded him but Otis was not through. He stooped down and placed the barrel of the gun behind the right ear of the sheriff and pulled the trigger," said the Journal history column.

Accordingly, Otis then told the frightened deputy to take off as fast as he could back up the road. After retrieving the keys from one of the sheriff's pockets, the McDaniels brothers removed their shackles, jumped in the car and took off down the road. The manhunt covered Colorado, New Mexico and even the border into Mexico. On the first day, there were 300 men combing the hills around Placerville, said the Journal history column.

According to reports at the time, rumors began to emerge, and on day two the men were seen at Dunton, Rico, Priest Gulch and down near Norwood. Knowing the men were armed and might even have a rifle with them, the order came out to kill on sight. On day five, men from Cortez, Rico, Dolores, San Miguel, Telluride and counties throughout western Colorado joined in one of the biggest manhunts ever staged in western Colorado.

"The two brothers were finally found on day 22. They tried to give false names but were found out and easily handcuffed since they had no weapons of any kind. They were taken to trial and found guilty of first degree murder for the deaths of Westfall and Sheriff Dunlap. Herbert was given an unconditional term of life imprisonment," says the Journal report.

On Feb. 12, 1936, Otis walked to the death chamber and fourteen minutes later was declared dead. He was the fiftieth person to be executed in the Colorado prison.

"Men Charged With Murder of Sheriff Will Be Arraigned"

A wire piece in the Craig Empire Courier, Aug 14, 1935, related some of the story of the trial in Telluride. Colo.

Aug. 12—(UP)— In a frame, weather-beaten building here, which represents justice In this district, two brothers, both, killers, will face one of two first degree murder charges. They are charged with having slain Sheriff W. W. Dunlap of Montezuma county and an aqcd Cortez sheepman James Westfall. The bnthcrs. Otis and Herbert McDaniels, will be tried in district court, here, for the slaying of Sheriff Dunlap and. If they escape the death penalty or life imprisonment in the state penitentiary, then they will bo tried at Cortez. Colo., for the murder of the sheepman. To people who knew the McDaniels boys by sight, few knew them personally, they appeared law-abiding citizens. They lived about 20 miles east of Durango. Otis, the older of the two who is 30 they knew was married. They also knew that Herbert. 20. was courting a 16-year-old La Plata county girl. He even had told a few persons his intentions of marrying her Otis was marked by prison terms in New Mexico and Utah. None knew of this, however, for it never was revealed and no one asked. Then on May 6. the body of Westfall, who lived not far from the McDaniels.’ was found dead in his cabin. He had starved to death. Also, ho had been beaten on the head and tied hand and foot. The cabin had been ransacked. Apparently robbery was the motive, authorities believed. The police then grew suspicious of the McDaniels boys and after considerable investigation arrested them. Police said they confessed to the crime, after their arrests. It was learned after the arrest that Herbert had married, and part of the money obtained from Westfalls cabin was used for the marriage license. Feeling ran high in the sheep country and for safe-keeping they were taken to jail in Glenwood Springs. Then came the day when they were to face arraignment or the charges Sheriff Dunlap and his deputy, Lem Duncan, went for them. On the return trip they stayed overnight at the Grand Junction jail, because of the long trip, then they resumed. Near Placerville the party came upon a wrecked automobile. Sheriff Dunlap stopped the automobile to investigate. While the the sheriff investigated the accident, Otis grabbed a gun from the automobile, according to Herbert’s story, and fired, killing Dunlap who begged him not to shoot. Duncan ran from the scene, the McDaniels brothers said, and they escaped. The two killers then fled into the mountainous terrain and managed to elude sheriff’s posses for 22 days. Their capture August 6 resulted when they applied for work near Guffey, Colo."

"Last Chapter in the Lives of Otis and Herbert McDaniel is Recorded by Officers" 

A Grand Junction Daily Sentinel article outlining Otis' and Herbert's criminal lives described them facing two trials:

"The brothers were tried in Durango and Telluride in two separate murder counts. The first was for the starvation slaying of James Westfall, aged Lewis, Colo. rancher. The second time, they stood before the Jury charged with the slaying of Sheriff W.W. Dunlap of Montezuma county," says the Sentinel.

"In the first trial, both were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In the second trial at Telluride, both were found guilty but the jury recommended that Otis die at lethal gas chamber in Canon City, and Herbert spend the remainder of his life behind bars."

"As the current Sheriff in Montezuma County, Colorado, and a Peace Officer here in southwest Colorado for 40 years, I learned about and have honored all who have made the ultimate sacrifice. After Sheriff Dunlap was killed, a plaque in his honor was mounted in a wall design in the Montezuma County Courthouse honoring his service, where the Sheriff's Office was once located. When I took office in 2015, I had the plaque removed and is now mounted for public display at the current location of the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office located at 730 East Driscoll Street in Cortez, Colorado, where it belongs for all who enter to view, know and remember," says Sheriff Steven D. Nowlin, Montezuma County Sheriff, in May 18, 2017 post regarding End of Watch Information on the national Officer Down Memorial Page honoring police officers killed in the line of duty.